The Daily Star, which has been heavily promoted by its owner, registered a circulation of 793,487 in October, a fall of 8.19% from September, representing the biggest monthly faller across the national newspaper market.
Desmond, who is attempting to overtake the circulation of the Daily Mirror, stopped price discounting the Daily Star to 10p in London at the start of October. The Daily Star now costs 20p in the capital, the same price as The Sun.
News International-owned The Sun, the country biggest selling national newspaper title, recorded a circulation of 2.90 million, down 2.36% on September, as the red-tops endured a tough month.
Overall, the red-tops dropped 2.65% on the month, partially offset by a reasonable performance from the Daily Mirror, which dropped just 0.14% to 1.21 million copies.
Across the mid-market, The Daily Mail continued to benefit from in-paper promotions and a recent brand campaign.
Neil Jagger, Mail Newspaper's circulation director, said he was confident that the 50p-priced title will continue to grow its market share.
All the titles in the quality sector, except from, the Financial Times, suffered a monthly drop in October. The Pearson-owned business title was up 2.99% to 401,898 copies.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned Times has yet to show any indication that its decision to put its digital editorial news content behind a paywall is helping sales of its printed issues.
The Times registered a circulation of 479,107, down 1.59% on the month. The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian both fell slightly on the month, 0.67% and 0.61% respectively.
Alexander Lebedev's Independent, meanwhile, outperformed all its quality rivals in October, falling just 0.20% to 182,142 copies.
Lebedev's i launched on 26 October, giving it limited time to impact on rival newspapers.
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